"IS ANYBODY PAYING ATTENTION?" The mindful view of an educated Buddhist blogger who uses critical thinking, evidence, facts, and investigation to come up with his opinions instead of fear based ideologies.

Monday, November 24, 2014

Alrighty Now,
I sent an email to the asshole who decided to continue having an older veteran arrested repeatedly for attempting in his own way to feed the

homeless. You will notice that, in typical Republican fashion, he tries to "reframe" the issue instead of addressing it directly and apologizing or admitting that it was wrong to arrest the man. This is his reply.

Jack Seiler

4:55 AM (6 hours ago)to me

Thanks for your input and for caring about the homeless. We truly appreciate the concern and respectful approach, and we recognize that this is a very difficult and emotional issue.

The City Commission did not realize that requiring the homeless be fed in safe, secure, sanitary and healthy conditions would be distorted by the media as an attack on the homeless. The City Commission did not ban feeding the homeless in the City of Fort Lauderdale and did not make it illegal to feed the homeless; the City Commission only regulated the location of those feedings. In fact, there are numerous locations where homeless feedings may be legally held in the City, including our downtown. You can read the ordinance online at our website: FortLauderdale.gov<http://FortLauderdale.gov/>.

Further, the cycle of homeless and homelessness on the streets of Fort Lauderdale is unacceptable, and this City Commission will do everything possible to get them off the streets and into the right programs, to the appropriate facilities, and to the proper resources necessary to turn their lives around.

This City Commission also does substantial charitable work for the homeless here in South Florida, volunteer at the local homeless assistance center, contribute financially to assist homeless programs and benefits, and work on several successful homeless veterans programs and projects. You can find many of those programs listed on our website at FortLauderdale.gov<http://FortLauderdale.gov/>.

Your assistance is also appreciated, and we welcome volunteers, partners, charitable contributions, donations, and all levels of support.

Best wishes and Happy Thanksgiving.

John P. "Jack" SeilerMayorCity of Fort Lauderdale

Sent via the Samsung Galaxy Note® II, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone

You can email Jack (the asshole) Seiler at JACK.SEILER@fortlauderdale.gov

Additional Edit: This was my reply to Jack Seiler's reply:

This was the typical Republican response. Try to "reframe the message" instead of addressing the problem. No one said anything about an attack on the homeless, you rationalizing dishonest whiner. The issue is arresting someone for doing something charitable because you think it's your job to qualify where people can help another struggling human being. Your treatment of the homeless is already on record. Your arresting an older veteran for doing something on his own without government interference, which I would like to add is something that your party whines so much about, claiming their selfishness has something to do with "the right manner of helping" instead of the fact that you want to restrict helping because you think someone not having any opportunities is somehow their fault.

You don't get to send me a form letter blanket rationalization and act like I am on your side on this. YOU need to quit thinking that homeless people should be treated by supervised restraint when it comes to being fed.

Sunday, November 23, 2014

There is a meme circulating on Facebook about Mayor Jack Seiler who keeps having a veteran arrested for feeding homeless people in "his town". I opted to write him an email instead of a phone call to his office. This is what I wrote:"...HI, Mayor,

My name is Steve but I am more well known on the internet as Arizona Mildman, blogger, YouTube Vlogger, and social media "top commenter" with a following on Twitter, as well. I am concerned, and wanted to share with you, about something I was notified about on Facebook today.

I read that you keep having a older veteran arrested for feeding homeless people.

Let me say this.

First, the veteran is within his rights to do charitable acts. Also, homeless people are not cats. They don't come back simply because you feed them. They are simply here to stay until conditions with the economy improve. I wish some of the homeless would go away, also, but that isn't going to happen until we undo the Ronald Reagan era completely and return all the mental patients to the asylums.

You should know that EVERYONE on the internet in social media like Facebook and Twitter is going to inundate your email and phone before long by letting you know how disgusting arresting this man is and how much of a lowlife they consider you for having someone arrest a man, whose last few pleasures in life include helping the less fortunate for any reason, no matter how much that you think you are right about it.

Your email and phone number are being circulated and if you change them they will just post those, also. Public servants as well as public figures of any kind can't hide anymore. As Donald Rumsfeld said after Abu Ghraib, "With the internet we have now, there are no more secrets."

I can assure you that if you keep it up you are going to get national attention that you don't want including people writing to the White House and the DOJ to find out if what you are doing can be stopped.

If you want your office to turn into something reminiscent of the Trayvon Martin scandal, then keep it up. Eventually ANONYMOUS will come after you and then you won't get anything to work in your entire computer network, (Just a thought/prediction, not a threat,) because they will do their own damage - but I am hearing the drums signalling that they are circling the wagons for an attack NOW.

Keep your head down because you are getting ready to become a famous villain in the public eye. (Probably not good for your career, either.)

I read something today that completely unnerved me and made me angry enough to want to hurt someone physically. I wrote this email message to John McCain on his "contact input" web page. I will post and share if he responds, as to what he has to say about it. With this email, I put the ball in his court. Considering the fact that the the Arizona Republic endorses him each year and they print editorials online, then I CAN make a stink for them if he doesn't comply with my request. Either he publicly denounces this asshole or I am going put him on the list of Republican congressmen that condone/endorse racism among their own party.
What I said was, "Incoming Nevada Assembly Speaker Ira Hansen of the Republican Party said in a statement publicly that, "...the relationship of Negroes and Democrats is truly a master-slave relationship. with the benevolent master knowing what's best for his simple minded darkies." He actually said this out loud. I don't have the time or patience to explain how many levels on which this is completely wrong and racially insensitive and insulting to fellow Democrats, since I am caucasian, progressive, and not a Christian (as I know several places in the bible and other religious texts that it not only never speaks out against slavery, it condone it and actually gives instructions on "how to" own and treat slaves). You have a choice. It is bad enough that so many of your party use race as a vote rallying tool, but condoning this language and this ignorance publicly is apathy. Apathy means you don't care, which means you ignore racism amongst your party. Some members of your party have tried really hard to keep from wording anything that might even have the slightest hint of being racially insensitive, much less racist. But this blatant attempt to convince racists that their motives are pure and giving them an excuse to call racism "correct" and rational, instead of what it is, ignorance and fear, coupled with hate from generations of the mutual admiration society that tells each other that they are the "right kind" of people, and deserve to look down on other human beings. It makes me glad to be progressive, it makes me glad to be Buddhist, and it makes me glad to be a man who stands up for and voices his condemnation of people who think they are better than everyone else.I will be waiting to hear about your condemnation of his behavior in the Arizona Republican and AZcentral.comThank You In Advance,Steve Walker of Phoenix"

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

The article from Melanoid Nation about Bill Cosby can be seen at http://melanoidnation.org/did-bill-cosby-think-that-he-was-exempt-from-white-supremacy/#comment-150 . There is an American Apartheid movement in the United States, whom would gladly have things as bad as South Africa was under British rule years ago, and that is the unfortunate part. Cosby did say some things like the fact that it is stupid to get killed over something trivial, in “The Pound Cake Speech”, and I understand it was a plea to get young black men to realize that they can’t do whatever they want, despite the rule of society and call it “cultural beliefs”. It was a plea to get them to understand that rules are there for a reason and no one in the rest of society will tolerate lawlessness. If this is considered, by this author, to be an “attack on black Americans”, then I disagree with that viewpoint. If a white comedian, for instance, Bill Maher, says that most of caucasian society has failed at something (I.E. immigration standards, racism, educational standards nationwide, healthy eating, intelligent views, religious mythology, etc.), no one jumps up to condemn him (And that would be have to be one who is at least an inwardly white supremacist and that can’t take criticism of their own stupidity.) for speaking out against his own race. Does anyone listen to Cosby and his speeches/pleas to black men as a society take root and make a difference? I doubt it. He is ridiculed as an “Uncle Tom” by people who do the exact wrong thing towards women and society that Bill talks about. Is that him being racist or them being defensive? I believe it is them being defensive about comments because his comments are taken by idiots/racists as permission to make judgements on other human beings based on race. The point is that no one in our society as a whole is going to excuse criminal behavior as a matter of “behavior by poor people who live in poverty that don’t have a way out”, and instead see it for what it is, criminal behavior. What is so wrong about that? If black people want to get away from being stereotyped as lazy and criminal (because most of them are just like everyone else) by racists, they need to quit excusing and rationalizing “the plight of” young people of their own race and deal with it realistically. There ARE lots of people in society who are poor. Some of them learn and become strong but many succumb to temptation to commit criminal acts and that includes members of ALL races. The fact that black men and women are arrested more often for the same things (usually non violent drug offenses) that everyone else seems to commit with impunity is a different issue and is being made public as a an awareness that the criminal justice system IS racially unbalanced in so many parts of the country. That is NOT the same issue.When ALL people in this country understand that income inequality is a problem for ALL of us, especially to the poor, and do something about it, then we will come to understand that the matters of race are a false flag social construct that causes men and women to struggle with survival, that is what really needs to be addressed.Who is true minority that is screwing this country’s economy and the environment up, including our educational system? RICH GREEDY PEOPLE. I don’t consider Mr. Bill Cosby one of those.

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Do you remember the aftermath of the last presidential election, when the Republicans lost? Everyone of them was trying to talk about WHY THEY LOST, and came up with every reason but the truth. THEIR POLICIES SUCK and THEIR CANDIDATES SOUNDED STUPID ON TELEVISION because they were uninformed or lying, and basing every answer from questions thrown at them on Opinions and Talking Points, not on any real solutions or facts. Talking Points can hold water in a quick debate if people don't fact check them, themselves, right away (Which is almost impossible.).
BUT, if you try to use a talking point that is over a year old, the general public has already fact checked and debunked it about 3 months previously. Even the hard heads generally give up stupid answer talking points that are over 9 months old.
RIGHT NOW, I HEAR DEMOCRATS DOING THE SAME THING. THE WHOLE "WHY WE LOST" THING IS GOING AROUND THE INTERNET, ESPECIALLY FACEBOOK AND TWITTER. I HAVE A MESSAGE FOR EVERYONE COMING UP WITH THE CONJECTURES: "YOU ARE WRONG!" QUIT WHINING, YOU SOUND LIKE REPUBLICANS.
Young Democratic Voters didn't vote in the midterms because THEY NEVER DO LIKE THEY SHOULD, BECAUSE - they are under the impression that since the president is the "TOP GUY" in government that he runs congress and the supreme court, also. That is the myth perpetuated by lack of education.
I DON'T KNOW HOW MANY TIMES WE HAVE TO SAY THIS: Civics 101 - There are 3 parts of government, 1 Executive, 2 Legislative, 3 Judicial. They act independently, but if you listen to our news media. ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS somehow is the president's fault, including who arrives at airports with an infectious disease.
UNLESS we get it through the media's heads that we won't put up with sensationalist bullshit anymore, then they will keep indoctrinating the uninformed at the whim of their corporate masters through fear, conjecture, conspiracy theories, and self-delusion. That last one is about the people who tell themselves something and won't let that thing go, the definition of delusion is:
"...de·lu·sion·al [dih-loo-zhuh-nl] adjective
1. having false or unrealistic beliefs or opinions
2. maintaining fixed false beliefs even when confronted with facts, usually as a result of mental illness
That kind of sensationalist journalism is wrong for our country and for people who don't get enough information except that few minutes of TV or news radio, that is what they have to go by. We as a nation, need to tell the American media sources, especially supposed "conservatives", to either tell the truth or STFU, NOW!
Until we do, there will be no nation, no unity, no peace, no right or wrong, no common enemy, no common ally, no common ideology, and that theme was the idea that made this country successful, happy, and what other people admired and that has been gone since Eisenhower left office. We need truth in advertising and truth in journalism. Freedom of speech must be tempered with one ideal - TRUTH.
You are welcome to have your own opinion, but you can't have your own reality. Your ignorance, mythology, superstitions (including religious ones), and conjecture based on opinions - don't equal knowledge facts.
AND, just because you have a large group of uninformed people who all want to believe (that is what faith means) a specific idea or ideology, that doesn't make it a fact or anywhere close to evidence, that only means there is a group of you who sound stupid because you are repeating someone else's propaganda or uniformed opinion.
THIS, is why the Red States politicians and conservative news shows want you ignorant, uneducated, and living desperately struggling on a daily basis, just barely having time to eat and sleep in between work shifts, is because they are all bought and paid for by the people who own the companies and corporations that you work for. Why do you think it is a good idea to leave that up to them. They can only decide based on profit margin, not on humanistic ideals.

Friday, November 7, 2014

I am really saddened by the midterm election results. If I hadn't voted early and taken my time to pick out and vote for the right candidates, help make "get out the vote" phone calls, and rallied around the candidates that I believe in, it wouldn't have bothered me so much, I guess.
Today I received an email from another person who helped fight the good fight and tried to campaign for the sake of educational revival here in this red state (Republicans always cut education spending first because they like having stupid people "under them".) - and progress of any kind in this state, who was a fellow volunteer at the Fred Duval campaign and I am going to delete her name but it went like this:

"...​Hi Steve,

Thank you so much for your time during our final get out the vote weekend! You helped us reach out and ensure more votes. Unfortunately, as you know, we fell short in the end... it was a difficult year across the board.

We appreciate your efforts and hope we'll see you during a future election.

All the best,(Name Deleted) "And my reply to her was this:

"...Yes, but to no avail. I am so disappointed in the young people in our country that don't, for some reason, allow themselves to understand the importance of the midterm elections. We need to reach them through their own form of media. Bill Clinton believes his appearance on MTV had a big effect. Comics and musicians did something called Rock The Vote, I was there. Hardly anyone tries during the midterms. This is the result. 2010 - the opening blast and take over of Libertarians and Tea Party who called themselves conservatives and Republicans. One is a bunch of selfish Ayn Rand fictional story believers and the other is a bunch of lunatic puppets who work, unknowingly for the Koch brothers and Koch Industries to ruin our environment, our democracy, and our economy. I find it hard not to want to give up and run away. We are faced with a nation of stupid and uninformed that are growing in numbers instead of facing reality. Conservative (propaganda) talk and fake news along with the overwhelming amount of ignorance (largely in the Red States) and under educated, uninformed, and angry low information less intelligent seeming individuals are being cultivated by low education and misinformation, coupled with the Religious Wrong who indoctrinate people to believe in fantasy misinformation through the stories of miracles and therefore getting normally rational and intelligent adults to be indoctrinated since youth in the belief of anything they tell them to believe. It has been used as a vehicle for politics for ages and was stepped up during the GW Bush administration reign of ignorance and fear.Thank You for inviting me to fight the good fight but I am so disillusioned that I just want to run away. I want to find another country where the majority of people don't believe that incarcerating the mentally ill and poor people is the solution to poverty. I want to find another country where wages and the cost of living are commensurate with each other. I want to find another country in which I feel like I belong instead of being a voice in the wilderness that people consider foolish and idealistic because I believe that everyone should be treated equally no matter what and that the wealthy aren't allowed to act like our founding fathers did, only allowing wealthy white land owners to vote and owning slaves. When I look back at when slavery was legal in the United States and realize that the slave "masters" only had to afford housing, clothing, food, and enough medical care to keep the slaves just well enough to work, then, I can see a direct correlation between that and the way illegal immigrants and low wage workers here are treated today. For after all, if you work 2 or 3 jobs (12 to 16 hour days) now, and you can barely afford to survive, then - what is the difference? Big Money, including campaigning needs to be taken out of the hands of advertising firms that sell us cigarettes and alcohol and everything else that is bad for us. John McCain and Russ Feingold pointed out long ago that even back then, it cost at least 25 million dollar to throw your hat (just to be considered for nomination in the advertising game) in the ring to be even a low level beginner as president. Barrack Obama changed the face of campaigning by asking everyone for 20 dollars instead of asking a handful of billionaires for millions. We believed in change for the better and this is how it ended up, through dark money, stupid sheep followers, and lazy people, especially the younger ones, who don't get out and vote. In my opinion, EVERY AMERICAN should be on a permanent early voters list (mail in ballot), if they are eligible to vote. Diebold voting machines have been hacked since previous to 2000 in GOP favor and we know it ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAyEfovA404 ). My only question now is "When is there going to be some real change?"Thanks, Sorry for the ranting,Steve Walker of Phoenix, AZ

About Me

I am an Arizona native, born and raised in Phoenix, although I have lived for brief times in other places. I am what one would call a Centrist. I don't believe in radical left or right stances and refuse to let the low information, regressive, right wing people call me "liberal" since that would be left of reality based on opinion, and I believe in facts and research of evidence.